If I may, and with respect, I am curious on your opinion about how SWAT should dress, considering what they are tasked with doing?
How ‘bout like police officers rather than Schutzstaffel? Blue shirt and pants, flat hat, black lace up shoes and a .38 revolver with a four inch barrel.
“considering what they are tasked with doing?”
I could break down doors to stoners houses wearing shorts and flip flops.
You won’t like my answer but I am more than happy to offer it.
No helmets. They can wear hats like every other officer.
No ski masks.
No goggles or night vision.
No all-black uniforms. No camouflaged fatigues.
They should look like beat cops or Sheriffs just with vests and long arms. That’s it. And they should drop the night-time no-knock raids that causes homeowners to draw down on them or fire on them when they break into the wrong house at night.
By dressing and equipping them like a military unit, they think like a military unit - shoot first and ask questions later.
I am FULLY FULLY aware that their risk level goes up without helmets and having to perform their no-knock raids in daylight. But that is the price of law enforcement in a free nation. You don’t get to have the complete security that you get in a police state.
The dress and tactics of SWAT forces are starting us down of losing support for police among Conservatives. Believe me, the police need that support and do not want to do anything to alienate that tax-paying base. The SWAT based police forces are beginning to push the “us vs them” thinking a little too far. When they lose the support of the taxpaying masses, they are going to wish they acted more like law enforcement officers earlier, and less like a military occupying force ferreting out terrorists house to house. Because they is how they are starting to behave now - and that is going to reinforce in them the idea that any homeowner anywhere can be the enemy.
SWAT is going way too far. Police have to back off from the military style dress and tactics. I know you don’t want to hear that, but it is how I feel.
I feel and have always felt the police are good guys and are there for my protection. I wish they would quit dressing and acting in a manner that is beginning to make me question if they are there to protect me or to protect themselves and the hell with me.
You won’t like my answer but I am more than happy to offer it.
No helmets. They can wear hats like every other officer.
No ski masks.
No goggles or night vision.
No all-black uniforms. No camouflaged fatigues.
They should look like beat cops or Sheriffs just with vests and long arms. That’s it. And they should drop the night-time no-knock raids that causes homeowners to draw down on them or fire on them when they break into the wrong house at night.
By dressing and equipping them like a military unit, they think like a military unit - shoot first and ask questions later.
I am FULLY FULLY aware that their risk level goes up without helmets and having to perform their no-knock raids in daylight. But that is the price of law enforcement in a free nation. You don’t get to have the complete security that you get in a police state.
The dress and tactics of SWAT forces are starting us down of losing support for police among Conservatives. Believe me, the police need that support and do not want to do anything to alienate that tax-paying base. The SWAT based police forces are beginning to push the “us vs them” thinking a little too far. When they lose the support of the taxpaying masses, they are going to wish they acted more like law enforcement officers earlier, and less like a military occupying force ferreting out terrorists house to house. Because they is how they are starting to behave now - and that is going to reinforce in them the idea that any homeowner anywhere can be the enemy.
SWAT is going way too far. Police have to back off from the military style dress and tactics. I know you don’t want to hear that, but it is how I feel.
I feel and have always felt the police are good guys and are there for my protection. I wish they would quit dressing and acting in a manner that is beginning to make me question if they are there to protect me or to protect themselves and the hell with me.
Maybe instead of questioning how SWAT should dress, we should question "what they are tasked with doing."
They are "tasked" with carrying out military-like operations. A practice that draws far too many rhoid-raged, trigger-happy, warrior wanna-bees into an act of questionable constitutionality that turns cops into "soldiers" and citizens into "the enemy."
I seriously question ANYONE'S motivation that is drawn to a job such as this. I want cops who signed up to protect and serve, not to wear bad-ass gear and shoot things.